The Importance of Missy Walker
by Kila9Nishika
Summary: When Draco acted on impulse that summer day, he never expected the impact that Artemis Athena Walker would have on his life.


Disclaimer: As I am a simple person who does not own tons and tons of money, I must admit to being a plain American girl, and not JK Rowling. Therefore, I do not own Harry Potter and the connected involved characters. Oh, well...

**Canon until post-OOtP. After that, my crazy imagination has free reign...**

* * *

**The Importance of Missy Walker**

When Draco had gone out that day, he had not expected that it would change his life. After all, he walked through this park every day. Surely, one mid-afternoon summer walk couldn't _possibly_ affect his entire future?

A shriek caught his attention. Draco wasn't much of a saving-type; that was for Gryffindors, but when he saw a small girl of perhaps twelve struggling in the water of the lake, he didn't think. Drawing his (unregistered) wand, Draco Levitated the girl out of the water.

After a moment of shock, Draco realized what he had done. He'd saved a little girl. A _muggle_ little girl. With _magic_. He was in _so_ much trouble.

The little girl had an aristocratic nose, brown eyes, and black curls that were probably silky when dry.

"Hello," the girl said quietly. "Thank you, for saving me, you know? My name is Missy – Artemis Athena Walker. You saved my life, and I owe you greatly."

Draco would never, for the rest of his life, know what had compelled him to do this, but his mouth opened and replied.

"I am Draco Alexander Malfoy. I saved you because…" he frowned. Why _had_ he saved the muggle girl? "…Because it was the right thing to do."

Missy ducked her head. "Do you come through this park every day, sir? Because, I live nearby, and…"

Draco felt an odd sense of freedom, conversing with Artemis Athena Walker. Within the hour, he had learned that she was twelve years old, and that her sister was a high school girl who had bedded the live-in relative of a neighbor. Missy's mother was an alcoholic, and her father paid no attention to their home life, only to his business. Missy confidentially told Draco that she believed it had something to do with her father's newest secretary, who was _very_ pretty.

Before he realized what was happening, the afternoon began to draw to a close. Rather startled to find the last rays of the setting sun shining in his eyes, Draco turned to Missy.

"Will you be here tomorrow?" he asked, wondering at that very moment why he cared.

Missy's face lit up. "Oh, yes! I haven't anything better to do, in any case." That smile, the one that set her brown eyes afire – it made Draco feel warm inside. And that was why he cared if she would be there the next day.

Missy and Draco met up nearly every afternoon for the rest of the summer. They made an odd couple, a twelve-year-old girl in an old Catholic private school uniform, and a fifteen-year-old boy wearing plain, unadorned black.

July seventh marked Missy's birthday, and they went to an ice-cream shop to celebrate her lucky thirteen. Draco, who enjoyed arithmancy, spent a good portion of the day explaining the various important values of thirteen.

The summer came to a close before either of them knew it. Draco found himself preparing to return to Hogwarts, and Slytherin, while Missy prepared to return to Saint Catherine's Private School for Girls.

On the last day of the summer, Draco looked at Missy – really looked at her. In becoming close to Missy, all thoughts of Voldemort and the Death Eaters had fled his mind. Yet Missy would be in terrible danger, from those he had once called friends.

"Missy…" he said slowly. "If I gave you something, could you promise me that you would always keep it nearby?"

Missy looked up at him from behind two dark curls of hair. "I believe so," she said. "Does it have something to do with the way you rescued me?"

Draco nodded stiltedly, and handed a small box to Missy. "I'll try to find you, but it may not be possible – erm, see you?" He was gone before she could answer.

Missy opened the box. Inside was a silver necklace, with a dragon carved from moonstone. Her lips curved into a smile as she placed it around her neck.

* * *

Draco wasn't certain how his life had fallen apart so quickly. Suddenly, he was a Death Eater, attacking muggles and muggle-born and blood traitors. He hated it, in his heart of hearts, but he knew that he dared not rebel.

As they went out on their latest raid, Draco prayed under his breath that Potter would kill the Dark Lord, and _soon_. Despite the way Draco acted at school, he would have liked nothing better than to flee.

He slipped his hand into his pocket. He had two portkeys, both with only one destination – Hogwarts. One was there because he couldn't Apparate yet, and the other was a spare; after all, it was January, school was still in session.

Normally, Draco did his best to hide any children in the homes they attacked. Heartbreakingly, he wasn't always successful, but he did his best. The Death Eaters were often surprisingly sloppy, and didn't look for magic in muggle households.

This raid, although it began the same, sent a shock straight to Draco's core. Sitting in the kitchen of the small house, doing homework was _Missy_.

Draco choked. Missy was there, the Death Eater… they would kill her! Quickly calculating the odds, Draco figured out that if he had one other person helping him, he could take out the other Death Eaters on this mission. Most of them _were_ idiots. Suddenly, he got an idea. Flicking his wand, Draco cast a rather simple charm.

A tiny paper airplane landed on Missy's textbook. Startled, the girl pushed a curl out of her face, and unfolded it. Draco had used the basic messenger charm used in the Ministry.

_Missy – it's Draco. Remember what I said about people hurting you? They're at your house, now. Get the gun from the drawer you told me about and be ready._

Missy, during one of their many chats, had told him about her father's gun, which was conveniently located in a nearby drawer in that very room. She had also told him about learning to shoot it. Now, if she could manage to get to it without attracting attention…

"Now!" One of the Death Eaters gave the command, just as Missy reseated herself in her chair. Draco, deciding to at least _seem _eager, blew the kitchen windows in.

Missy whirled, drawing the gun and hiking up her skirt seemingly simultaneously. Draco yanked of his mask immediately, so that Missy could be free to aim and fire. Which she did.

In a whirlwind that seemed like an eternity and yet only moments, Missy had taken out roughly half of the Death Eaters attacking, while Draco had taken out the other half, leaving only one survivor. After Stunning the survivor, he turned to Missy.

"Do you have anything here that you are particularly attached to?"

Missy's hand flew to her neck, revealing that she still wore the necklace. Draco nodded, and handed her a small pouch. "It has an Extending Charm on the inside; you could fit a small house in it. Hurry. I'll deal with this."

Missy nodded, and left the kitchen. Turning to the Death Eater, Draco pointed his wand. "_Ennervate."_ The Death Eater's eyes opened. Before the idiot could do anything, Draco had him in a Body-Bind. "_Obliviate._ You got here, but the girl killed everyone but you. You Apparated away after seeing…" Draco checked under one mask, and grinned. "After seeing Walden Macnair's brains blown out by a muggle _gun_. You fled to save your life, and saw that one of the other Death Eaters had Portkeyed away under Macnair's orders beforehand."

The Death Eater nodded shakily, and Apparated away with a _crack!_ just as Missy came back into the room.

Draco took a moment to breathe and look around. The floor was spattered with blood, even though he had Banished the dead bodies. A swift flick remedied that mess. Missy was still wearing her school uniform, with the skirt pulled up too high and the neck of the shirt unbuttoned. Draco gaped at her for a moment, and shook his head. "Come here."

Missy swung a backpack onto her back, and stuffed the pouch in her pocket. "Now what?" she asked.

Draco pulled out his Portkey. "This is a Portkey. When I trigger it, we will be… _transported_ away, to my school. There, I'll have to Transfigure your clothes into our uniform, so that you blend in. Then I have to hide you somewhere… I'll work that out. Come here, and touch it." He held out the quill, and Missy smirked, poking it with one finger. "Grounds Four Snake." The Portkey activated.

Missy stumbled when they arrived at the edges of the Forbidden Forest, clinging to his arm to avoid landing face-first in the dirt. After steadying herself for a moment, she turned to Draco. "You said something about a uniform?"

Draco nodded numbly and began the transfigurations, beginning with her skirt. Lengthening it and changing the color from blue to grey was simple. Then, it was a slightly modified (and cleaner) version of the white blouse she was already wearing. A shoelace became a green and silver tie, and a handkerchief became her robes, complete with Slytherin badge.

Missy twirled around. "Am I decent?"

A quick spell at her sneakers to change them into respectable black shoes, and Missy looked like the epitome of a Slytherin. Draco smiled. "Perfect."

It was only when they had gotten halfway to the Slytherin Common Room that Draco realized something. "Oh, _no._"

Missy stopped, and gave him a worried glance. "What?"

Draco moaned, and rubbed his forehead. "Professor Snape – our Head of House – he'll definitely recognize that you don't belong, as will most of the Slytherins. For that matter, a good portion of the Ravenclaws will notice as well! Walking the halls with your head down is one thing, the Common Room is another. Oh, Merlin, what are we going to do?"

Just then, an invisible pair of hands pulled the two of them into a room. Draco swore, and Missy gaped. Sweeping a silvery piece of fabric off of himself was a thin teen with wild black hair and green eyes shaded by glasses.

"Oh, bloody hell, Potter!" Draco looked somewhere in between terrified and furious. Missy took a good look at the new teen. He wore a Hogwarts uniform themed in red and gold, and had an interesting scar on his forehead. The bespectacled teen turned to Missy.

"I am Harry Potter," he said quietly. "Listen to me, and listen well, Malfoy. You're obviously decent enough, and it would be stupid to hate you. So I'll just tell you now that I can hide her, if you want."

Draco stared at Potter. "You won't give her over to Dumbledore? Really?" He couldn't believe Potter was being so nice.

Potter nodded. "You care about her, I can see that. If Dumbledore got his hands on her, he'd Obliviate her. Follow me."

Turning sharply, Harry Potter set off at a brisk walk, leaving the Slytherin and his muggle friend to catch up.

After a couple of twisting turns, Draco gaped at the place to which Potter had led them.

"A bathroom? A _girl's_ bathroom? Wow Potter, thanks _loads_."

Potter whirled, his eyes literally blazing. "You're a Slytherin, not a Gryffindor, Malfoy. Think before you open your mouth." Turning back around before Draco could reply, he let out a strange hissing noise. The sinks began to move.

* * *

Draco brushed his hair hastily out of his face. Only two hours ago, Potter had been leading Missy into the _Chamber of Secrets_, to keep her safe. Now, he was fighting for his life. And so was Potter, somewhere. Suddenly, a shout caught his attention.

"Draco!" It was Potter. Draco watched with no little bit of awe as Potter dueled easily with _three_ Death Eaters at once.

"What?" he shouted back, sending a Slashing Curse towards a Death Eater torturing whats-her-name-(Natalie MacDonald?).

Potter ducked, and spun. "Voldemort's sent Nagini to the Chamber! Missy isn't safe!"

Draco's mouth opened in horror, when a terrified cry went up. Half-turning, Draco felt his heart sink. Dumbledore, who had been dueling Voldemort, had fallen.

"HARRY!"

A flash of green light, a body hurtling across a small space –

The battle seemed to have frozen. Voldemort had his wand pointing at Potter, but there was a body crumpled at his feet. Potter made a strangled sobbing noise. "_No_," he whispered.

The fighting had stopped. All, Light and Dark, had their eyes on Voldemort and Potter.

"_Terry._** NO**!" Potter was shivering; his wand had fallen from his hand. Draco wanted to swear, wanted to shake Potter until he _paid attention_!

Light, like gold dust motes, began to swirl around Potter's body, brightening around his hands and head. Draco shaded his eyes slightly as the golden light surrounding Potter seemed to grow _solid_; watched as Potter's chin came up, as his eyes grew hard, and swallowed a choked gasp as Potter's scar blazed with white gold light. The silence seemed to fill the air like and orchestra, rumbling voicelessly –

"Of course." Granger's voice filled the hall, her words barely louder than a whisper. "_Sowilo_. Sign of self will, of solar strength. Rune of self-orientation and guidance towards the Light. _Victory_."

Voldemort seemed to have caught on, as Potter seemed to draw nearer to what some would call godhood, the Dark Lord drew his wand and cast.

"_Avada Kedavra._"

The green light seemed to crawl across the space in between them, moving swiftly and slowly all at once –

The sickly green light colliding with Potter's blazing, _golden_ body –

The evil, sickening green light was _absorbed_. Absorbed by the gold light, which immediately began to roil restlessly around Potter's body, before –

The golden light seemed to _explode_, blasting outwards and slamming into Voldemort. It was with a sick sort of fascination that all of those in the fight watched as Voldemort's body was torn to pieces, and the black smoky thing that was his soul, suffocated.

Voldemort was dead.

Like a marionette with its strings cut, Potter collapsed beside the boy who had taken the Killing Curse for him, Terry Boot.

Suddenly, a Death Eater pointed his wand directly at Draco. "Traitor!" he screamed.

Draco flinched. _I fought for the right side_, he told himself. _In the end, when it counted, I fought for the right side._

Draco heard something coming towards him, and ducked to see his _own father_ pointing his wand at him. "Traitor," Lucius Malfoy hissed, "You are a traitor, to our Lord and to our family! I will –" _**Crack-BOOM!**_

Lucius Malfoy's head exploded in a bloody mist. Standing in a straight line from where he had been, gun pointing at the next Death Eater, was Missy.

"Don't you _dare!_" she spat, her eyes flaming. "Draco saved my _life_, more than once! If anyone_, anyone_, lifts their wand against him, I'll kill them."

There was silence for a moment, and then the sound of many wands falling to the ground. Slowly, her gun still pointed at Nott Sr., Missy walked over to Draco and hugged him.

"I killed the snake," she whispered.

Draco looked at her for a moment, and kissed her.

* * *

The aftermath was more tiring (and exasperating) than the battle itself. As soon as Terry Boot had been buried, Potter vanished. Two months later, Lupin and Black took prominent places in the government, attempting to mend things for the better.

Granger became the teacher for Ancient Runes _and_ History of Magic, and they covered the Two Wars of Voldemort every year. (Students even said Voldemort, instead of something hyphenated.)

Dumbledore, miraculously, was not dead. He remained the crazy Headmaster at Hogwarts until his death in bed in 2002, at which point Minerva McGonagall took the seat of Headmistress.

Severus Snape stopped teaching immediately after the war, and gave himself up to study. Rumor had it that he had even _married_. Those rumors were substantiated when Lillian and Regulus Snape showed up at Hogwarts in 2010.

The Weasley clan grew. Astronomically. In fact, Draco predicted that it would someday be impossible to be a British wizard and _not_ be related to them. The eldest had married, they had two children; the second eldest had married, they had one child. The third eldest, Percy, had not only married, but also become the Minister of Magic. He had five children.

The crazy owners of W3 (Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes) were both married, and while their marriage certificates said that Fred was married to Angelina and George was married to Alicia, nobody would ever be certain that it was the truth. In any case, between the four of them, there were two sets of twins so far.

Ron Weasley (Weasel) had married a girl named Serena Fawcett, who was just as crazy about Quidditch as he was. Despite their marriage being the shortest of those in the Weasel Clan, they already had four children. Gah!

Ginny Weasley had married Viktor Krum, and they had adopted seven muggle-born children already. Ginevra had been cursed during battle, and could not conceive.

And Draco himself? After finishing Hogwarts, he went on to go, of all things, to a muggle school. He eventually became a muggle historian as well as a Defense Against the Dark Arts Master. In 1999, he married Artemis Athena Walker, who was at university (she skipped a couple grades) and pregnant with twins.

The graduating class of 2018 was the largest seen in decades. Filled with Weasleys, Longbottoms, a pair of Snapes, and two Malfoys, the crowds at the graduating ceremony were huge.

After Professor Granger-Zabini finished her speech, the Headmistress walked to the podium.

"I am certain that we are all ready for the speeches to end," she said, a faint smile on her face. "But one last speech shall now be given, by a man named Sol Harrison."

A thin man with black-and-white hair walked slowly to the podium, and smiled.

"Well," he said. "It seems like not so long ago that all of these graduates were squalling babies, doesn't it?" A few people laughed. "But that is not what I am going to talk about."

He turned slowly so that he seemed to catch each person's eyes. "In Hogwarts, we are separated into four groups – Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw. So today, rather than praise only one, or another, I am going to point out one pair of heroes from each house.

"First mentioned, I name Hermione Granger-Zabini and Neville Longbottom. Both of them were Gryffindors, and yet many wondered why. Why was Hermione not in Gryffindor? Well, anyone who heard her explaining Ancient Runes to Voldemort himself would know why. Why was Neville a Gryffindor? Anyone who saw him defeat Bellatrix Lestrange can understand. They both fought for their beliefs, and let nothing stand in their way.

"For Ravenclaw, I ask that the remembered include Terry Boot, who took a Killing Curse for his love, and Luna Lovegood, who dueled with Voldemort himself until Dumbledore could arrive. Luna was the odd one out, often, but she battled someone who was much more powerful than she, just to keep the lower years safe. She utilized the knowledge that Ravenclaw is famous for, to save lives. And Terry. He saw the pieces fall together, and knew that someone would have to take the Killing Curse cast by Voldemort. In that one moment, he taught an important lesson – while logic is important, so is following your heart.

"Hufflepuff. The name Cedric Diggory is one of a true hero. He died, not because he did something wrong, but because he was loyal enough to stand by Harry Potter. The other Hufflepuff I ask you to remember is Hannah Abbott, who gave up her life for her best friend, Susan Bones, and Susan herself, for fighting until she was leaning on the wall to remain upright.

"Slytherin. The first name I mention is Blaise Zabini, who cut a huge swath in the Death Eaters while protecting his younger House-mates and his to-be wife, the then-Hermione Granger. For Slytherin, though, I would also like to mention two other extremely important people.

"One is Draco Malfoy. He fought by the side of Harry Potter until the end, keeping Death Eaters off of his back. The other I mention, with great respect, never went to Hogwarts at all. Artemis Athena Malfoy."

There was a brief silence; Draco stared at this "Sol" as heads turned to look at his wife with wide eyes. Sol continued –

"Artemis is a muggle that Draco rescued earlier in the day of the last battle. It was for her that Draco fought, and it is she who ensured the surrender of the remaining Death Eaters after Harry Potter fell. She personally killed Lucius Malfoy, doing the world a great service by saving Draco's life. While she is a muggle, she is just as powerful, important, and brave as any witch or wizard. I, personally, am in awe of her.

"It is for the epitomes of each House that I turn to you, graduates, and ask – can you truly shun each other, when you all have the hearts and souls of heroes-to-be? The time for division is done and gone, now is the time unify!

"Good luck in the world outside of school!" Sol smiled, and began to leave the podium.

Just then, an anonymous voice called out from crowd. "But what about Harry Potter? Wasn't he a hero?"

Sol stopped, and turned, smirking. Pushing his hair off of his face, Sol gave a short laugh. "Why would I be in awe of myself?"

Briskly walking outside the boundaries of the Wards, he Apparated away. As the ceremonies concluded, Draco turned to his wife, and smiled. Sitting by her side were three of their five too young for Hogwarts. There were another six currently in Hogwarts, and one graduating today.

Missy leaned over, and kissed Draco's cheek. "Guess what."

Draco smiled, putting an arm around her. "What?"

Missy gave him a brilliant smile. "I'm pregnant. Triplets."

_Yes, indeed_, thought Draco as he gave his wife a long kiss, _who ever would have known the importance of Missy Walker?_

**FIN**


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